Solaris Bus
€292.2 million | operating_income = Euro 20.6 million | net_income = Euro 13.5 million | assets = Euro 126.1 million | equity = Euro 87.6 million | num_employees = 1562 | homepage = www.solarisbus.pl | intl = yes }} Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. is a bus, coach and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bolechowo and Środa Wielkopolska, near Poznań, Poland. It is a family-owned business, with Krzysztof Olszewski as chairman and his wife Solange as deputy chairman responsible for contacts with clients. It is located in a former weapons factory, and was featured by BBC World in a program related to EU expansion in May 2004, as an example of a post-communist success in Poland. History Solaris started as Neoplan Polska, founded in 1994 by Krzysztof Olszewski. Neoplan Polska was selling, and since March 1996 also building under German license, low-floor Neoplan city buses. In 1999 it released first buses under its own Solaris brand (model Urbino). On 1 September 2001 Neoplan Polska was renamed to Solaris Bus & Coach Sp. z o.o. In 2005 it was transformed into a joint stock company. In the 1990s, the company developed its own research office and used computer software originally developed for the design of space shuttles. It reduced the time needed to design and build new prototypes to about six months. Another six months are needed to build a new bus prototype. Solaris is one of the newest players in the European bus market, but already quite successful: Solaris has received awards for their products at the Kortrijk Bus World show in Belgium. Trolleybuses are made in co-operation with the Hungarian company Ganz Electro or (the Czech division of) the company Cegelec. Both companies make the electric devices for the vehicles. Solaris produced the first European bus model using hybrid technology, the Solaris Urbino 18 Hybrid. That hybrid model was ordered a few months ago by the Polish city ofIn 2007 Solaris was employing about 1,200 workers. Now "Solaris Bus & Coach" builds 600-700 buses a year. Sales Solaris has sold diesel and CNG-powered buses to numerous cities in Europe. It also sells [[trolleybus]es to Italy (Rome and Naples), France (Paris, Bayonne and Narbonne), Denmark, Sweden (Landskrona), Germany (Berlin, Bochum and Kassel, Lithuania (Kaunas and Vilnius), Latvia (Riga and Daugavpils), Estonia (Tallinn), Switzerland (Winterthur and La Chaux-de-Fonds), Hungary, (Budapest and Debrecen), Czech Republic (Opavand Ostrava), Slovakia (Bratislava and Košice), Poland (Warsaw, Szczecin, Lublin, Gdynia, Rzeszów, Poznań, Kraków, Tychy and Częstochowa) and most recently Athens, Greece and United Arab Emirates (Dubai). Products * Solaris Alpino - citybus * Alpino 8,9 LE - citybus (Low Entry) * Solaris Urbino 9/10/12/15/18/18 Hybrid - citybus * Urbino 12 LE - citybus (Low Entry) * Urbino 15 LE - citybus (Low Entry) * Solaris Valletta - citybus * Solaris Vacanza 12 - coach * Vacanza 13 - coach * Solaris Trollino 12 - trolleybus * Trollino 15 - trolleybus * Trollino 18 - trolleybus * Tramino - tram (to be released in 2011) * Solaris Urbino * Solaris Urbino 12 * Solaris Urbino 18 * Solaris Vacanza * Solaris Valetta * Solaris Trollino External links * Official site Category:Bus manufacturers of Poland Category:Companies founded in 2001 Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers of Poland Category:Companies of Poland